Wessler: Braves are longing to find leader

Geno Ford shook up the Bradley Braves' starting lineup Saturday night. The coach might want to keep shaking it, along with his substitution patterns, until the Braves produce the consistent effort, performance and floor leadership required to win games.

Tyshon Pickett and Omari Grier were benched when the game began, the result of missing Thursday's practice because their flights back to Peoria from family Christmas festivities were delayed. Ford's action was not so much punitive as it was intended to send a message to the team. Had Pickett and Grier not missed practice, Ford likely would have benched someone else.

The message is simple. This team has too much talent to have gone oh-for-December, or to be 5-8 and carrying a six-game losing streak, after their 61-57 loss to South Florida. But the losing won't stop until every player decides he's willing to commit to all the little things, on and off the court, that contribute to the team winning.

Nobody is exempt from accountability. That includes scoring leader Walt Lemon Jr., whose erratic play and head-hanging are especially problematic coming from a senior captain.

Lemon, like most of the Braves, played pretty well Saturday. His first half, in particular, was a model of opportunistic scoring (11 points), teamwork (five assists), careful ball-handling (only one turnover) and predatory defense (four steals). The performance was arguably Lemon's best 20 minutes of the season, and because it came within the team concept, Bradley led 30-28 at halftime and took a five-point lead into the final five minutes.

But in crunch time, Lemon came unglued. Twice in a row he drove toward the basket and threw up wild shots, and suddenly the BU lead was trimmed to one point. He followed with a missed layup on a designed play. Finally, with Bradley trailing by two points, Lemon put his head down and drove into a charging foul, trying to be the hero with 12 seconds to play.

Not to put all of the blame on Lemon, but he managed only six points and two assists in the second half, during which he committed four turnovers. Win as a team, lose as a team, but the surest way for a team to lose is when individuals venture off the grid.

This Bradley team has a leadership vacuum big enough to swallow the Hoover company.

"Leadership is a two-part thing," Ford said. "You've got to say the right thing all the time, consistently, or else you don't have credibility. And then you've got to go out and perform. You can't say, 'Hey, we need a stop' and then not close out on defense."

Last season, Bradley managed a winning record with a relatively thin roster, in large part because of strong senior leadership from Will Egolf, Jake Eastman and Dyricus Simms-Edwards. Ford over the summer expressed concern about filling the leadership void left by their departures, Egolf's in particular.

"The gift of Will Egolf," Ford called it Saturday. "He was so great ... in that he was always positive. Regardless of what was going on, he was positive. We could be down 32-0, and he was a cheerleader. We struggle with that. We don't have anyone who's got that dynamic personality. Well, we do, but some of those guys just got here, and they're still trying to find their way."

And the current seniors, who have experience in the program, aren't helping them. At least not the way the newbies need to be helped. Ford isn't calling out any individuals in public, nor should he at this point. But he and his staff have to figure out how to solve this leadership problem.

Ford says he has conducted more team-building exercises this season than in the previous decade combined. For 35 minutes Saturday, it appeared that work was starting paying dividends. Communication on the court was good. Players helped fallen teammates get up off the floor. And when seldom-used 7-footer Nate Wells, who played 17 minutes in his first start, dunked to finish a beautiful pick-and-roll play with Lemon, the entire Bradley team swarmed him.

"When Nate got that dunk, I felt like it was one of the first times all year when everybody was together," junior Auston Barnes said. "It was like a tidal wave flying at Nate. We need to build on that and just stay together through the struggles ..."

But when the struggles came, the Braves went their separate ways. Again. Nobody on the court pulled them together, nobody on the court led a comeback.

Until that gets fixed, the losing will continue.

KIRK WESSLER is Journal Star executive sports editor/columnist. He can be reached at kwessler@pjstar.com, or 686-3216. Read his Captain's Blog at blogs.pjstar.com/wessler/. Follow him on Twitter @KirkWessler.